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World

Brazilian police occupy Rio favelas without firing shots in latest slum 'pacification'

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • Brazil Rio Security
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    Police officers patrol the Lins slum complex during an operation to install a Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013. Elite police units backed by armored military vehicles and helicopters invaded the 12 communities part of the Lins slum complex. The action is part of a policing program aiming to drive violent and heavily armed drug gangs out of Rio's slums, where the traffickers have ruled for decades. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) (The Associated Press)

  • cb482e92-Brazil Rio Security
    Image 2 of 2

    A police officer patrols the Lins slum complex during an operation to install a Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013. Elite police units backed by armored military vehicles and helicopters invaded the 12 communities part of the Lins slum complex. The action is part of a policing program aiming to drive violent and heavily armed drug gangs out of Rio's slums, where the traffickers have ruled for decades. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) (The Associated Press)

RIO DE JANEIRO – Police have occupied a group of adjacent favelas in Rio de Janeiro, the latest slum "pacification" aimed at driving out drug traffickers and improving security in the coastal city.

Col. Luis Castro Menezes, commander of the military police in Rio, says not a single shot was fired during the 50-minute operation Sunday involving 590 police officers and 180 military troops in the Lins de Vasconcelos slums in the city's north. The slums include 12 communities with about 15,000 inhabitants.

Authorities plan to install two permanent police stations in the slums as part of the city's "pacification" program.

Television images showed the zone's commercial section opening Sunday without incident and inhabitants going about their regular business.

With the two new stations, Rio now has 36 Police Pacification Units in its slums.